Research On The Farmers’ Livelihood Capital,Farmland Transfer And Economic Performance

Farmland transfer is an important way to realize modern agriculture in China.In recent years,driven by the government,China’s farmland management rights transfer has achieved certain results.However,with the economic development entering into the "new normal",the farmland transfer in China shows problems such as insufficient vitality and low scale of farmland management,which seriously restricts the process of agricultural modernization in China.It is worth noting that the development dilemma of the farmland transfer market falling into "low level fluctuations" is not only related to the external market environment,but also closely related to the constraints of farmers’ endogenous dynamic livelihood capital.Household livelihood capital is the key factor in the selection of farmers’livelihood activities,which determines the possible action strategies of farmers in land using.With the increased mobility of rural resource elements in urban and rural areas,family livelihood endowments have changed significantly compared to the past,and these changes will inevitably affect farmers’ decision of farmland transfer.At the same time,after farmers participating in farmland transfer,the way of household resources allocation is changed,which affects their economic performance.Then,what is the impact of farmers’ livelihood capital on farmland transfer,and what is the impact mechanism?After farmers participate in the farmland transfer,what is the impact of family factor reallocation on family economic performance?What is the difference in the economic performance of rural households’ farmland transfer under the condition of the heterogeneity of livelihood capital?What are the mediating effects of the factor allocation behavior of farmland transfer in the livelihood capital and household economic performance?To answer these questions,based on sustainable livelihood and other related theories,this paper constructed a theoretical analysis framework of " farmer’s livelihood capital-farmland transfer decision-economic performance change".Used the data of China Family Panel Survey(CFPS),on the basis of summarizing the current status of farmers ’livelihood capital and farmland transfer,firstly,this paper revealed the influence mechanism of farmers’ livelihood capital on farmland transfer,and discussed the influence of labor and capital elements on the joint decision-making for farmland transfer,and tested the impact of livelihood capital and family factors on farmland transfer by multi-probit model;Secondly,the paper explored the impact of farmland transfer on farmers’ economic performance.Used agricultural production efficiency and household income to represent economic performance,and compared the economic performance difference of the farmland transfer of farmers with heterogeneous livelihood capital.In the empirical study,instrumental variables ware introduced,the endogenous transformation regression model and unconditional quantile treatment effect model ware used to verify the impact of farmland transfer on farmers’ economic performance.Finally,the paper analyzed the mediating effect of farmland transfer between livelihood capital and farmers’ economic performance.In the empirical research,for effective testing,the structural equation model was used to solve the situation where the mediating variable is the classified variable.The main research conclusions are as follows:Firstly,there are significant differences in the impact of different types of livelihood capital on farmland transfer.From the perspective of farmers’ decision-making on farmland transfer-out,households which rich in natural capital,quantitative human capital,material capital and financing financial capital have lower probability of farmland transfer-out.However,the higher probability of farmland transfer-out is for the families with rich cultural human capital and kinship social capital.From the perspective of farmers’ land transfer-in decision,quantitative human capital,productive material capital,financial capital and social capital will promote farmland transfer.While,natural capital,cultural human capital and non-productive material capital will restrain farmers from transferring in land.Besides,in addition to the constraints of their own livelihood capital,the farmer’s farmland transfer behavior is also affected by the allocation of other family elements.The transfer of rural labor force will promote the farmland transfer-out and restrain the transfer-in.Farmers’ purchase of mechanized services will inhibit the farmland transfer-out and promote the farmland transfer-in.Secondly,farmland transfer has effectively promoted the agricultural production efficiency of farmers,it has an effect on improving the agricultural production efficiency of farmers with heterogeneous livelihood capital.The farmland transfer-in is more helpful to increase the land productivity of capital-balanced farmers and the labor productivity of capital-poor farmers.While,the farmland transfer-out is more conducive to improving the land productivity of capital-poor farmers and the labor productivity of farmers with capital-balanced farmers.Thirdly,the farmland transfer can promote the growth of farmers’ income,but it will expand the income gap between farmers.Whether the farmland is transferred in or out,it can significantly increase the farmers’ income of farmers.However,the impact of farmland transfer-in and transfer-out on the income growth of farmers is "asymmetric",and the impact of farmland transfer-out on farmers’ income growth is greater than farmland transfer-in.Moreover,the impact of farmland transfer on farmers’income has "Matthew effect",which will expand the income gap between farmers.Among them,with the increase of income,the impact of farmland transfer-in on farmers’ income is increasing.The effect of farmland transfer-out is the most obvious in the middle and high income group,and the least in the lowest income group.At the same time,the impact of farmland transfer on the income of farmers with heterogeneous livelihood capital is different.On the whole,the farmland transfer-in and transfer-out have a significant effect on the income of three types of capital heterogeneous farmers.However,the effect of farmland transfer-in on the income of capital-rich farmers is greater than that of the capital-balanced and capital-pool farmers.And the increasing effect of the transfer-in on income of capital-pool farmers is the smallest.The effect of the farmland transfer-out on the income of capital-balanced farmers is much greater than that of other two types of farmers,but the income-increasing effect of the capital-rich farmers is the smallest.And for the same type of farmers,there are differences in the income increasing effect of farmland transfer-in and transfer-out.For the livelihood capital-rich farmers,the income increasing effect of farmland transfer-in is greater than that of farmland transfer-out;however,for the capital-balanced and capital-pool farmers,the income increasing effect of farmland transfer-out is greater than farmland transfer-in.Fourthly,the farmland transfer has a mediating effect between the partial livelihood capital and the farmers’ economic performance.Natural capital,cultural human capital,productive material capital,financing financial capital,and social capital will affect agricultural production efficiency through the farmland transfer-in;while natural capital,cultural human capital,and friendly social capital will affect agricultural production efficiency through farmland transfer-out.There is no mediating effect of farmland transfer-in between livelihood capital and farmers’ income,while human capital,productive material capital,and kinship social capital can affect farmers’ income through the mediating effect of farmland transfer-out.Based on the above research conclusions,in order to improve farmers’ livelihood level and economic performance,this paper puts forward some policy suggestions,such as promoting the development of farmland transfer market,standardizing the orderly market environment,improving farmers’ livelihood ability,reasonably guiding farmers’ farmland transfer,improving relevant factor markets and strengthening the linkage between factor markets.